How to Select Your Ethics Setting

Robot cars may someday make life-and-death decisions based on your ethics setting.

Hardly a day goes by that we don't see something new.

The Apple Watch.

"Birthday Cake" M&M's.

An all-terrain stroller that can handle grass, gravel, dirt, rocks, trails and other so-called "mommy terrain."

Robot cars that make decisions about what crashes to avoid.

Sounds cool. Very cool.

But robot cars? Robot cars that make ethical decisions?

Yes. Let's say you're driving one of these vehicles down the street and fail to notice the group of five people standing in the road in front of you. Not to worry. Your car will grab the wheel from you and swerve to the right. Five lives are saved because the car has been programmed to avoid collisions and save human lives.

But what if there is a person standing on the sidewalk, to the right of your car? That person could be killed when the robot car obeys its own life-saving laws. There are ethics settings built into any robot vehicle.

"Did your robot car make the right decision?" Good question, asked by the author of an article in Wired magazine....